YEAR OF THE VAMPIRE 26

Chapter 26

Music from: Honourable Sacrifice

Ivy pivoted, certain the scream had come from behind her.

In the brief light of the star-dots and a streak of lightning, she saw Beatrix lying on the floor. Another girl screamed, and this time Ivy turned quickly enough to see Camille slump to the floor.

"Camille!" Ivy bolted, only to trip over another prone body. She barely stayed on her feet, and when she looked down, an orange pirate lay unmoving. She looked around amid the dizzying lights at the falling bodies of her classmates. "Lornie!"

"Cut the music!" a boy yelled.

A chorus of screams enveloped the air, and when a flash of lightning lit the room for a second, Ivy saw that half the crowd had keeled over. She turned again, and faced where she'd last seen Camille.

The shanty continued, running on a separate circuit as the main lights, sounding mockingly maniacal in the surreal lighting as another round of screaming split the air. When a bolt of lightning came with jarring crack of thunder, Ivy saw them.

At each of the tall windows stood figures, lean and caped, like folded umbrellas, mere silhouettes in the swirling dots of lights.

"Boo!"

Ivy shrieked and cuffed Dred as he popped out in front of her.

"Ugh!" he groaned, backing up a step. "Ivy!"

A long flash of lightning lit him up. His black-and-white tie-dye T-shirt was ripped, with red dripped down his collar and chest. His mouth hung open as he rubbed his jaw where she'd cuffed him. From his upper teeth hung two long fangs.

"Dred," she breathed. "You're a . . . a vampire."

"Yeah, a damn good one, too, don't ya think?" He wiped a hand back over his head, smoothing his already slicked back dark hair. "Your teen vampire prom date. Printer ink. Original, huh?"

Her face wrinkled in disbelief. "Did you do this?" She swallowed, her voice shaking. "You're really one."

"What?" He frowned at her, most of his expression lost in the blinky lighting. "Oh, this?" He pulled the fake fangs from his mouth, sucking up saliva. "Look real, don't they? But damn, they're cutting the hell outta my gums."

"Oh . . ." She could only stare at him as he plugged the fangs back in and did a test chomp at her. "Dred—"

"Yarh!" he said, lurching again toward her with a laugh and feigning a bite.

"Stop it!" She turned to the window behind her. A rip of lightning went over the room, and she used it to turn, taking in the crowd.

Everyone lay unmoving on the floor.

Ivy spun to face the figure in the window again. "What is this? Who are you?" Her legs trembled. "Did you do this?"

"We asked you to come to the hall," Mandrake's voice came from behind her.

She turned to see his silhouette outlined by lightning at the far window. "Mandrake. But why?"

"We had to get your attention," said a female voice with a heavy accent from another window.

Ivy found her, a shorter dark figure, wrapped in a long cloak.

Dred turned slowly, scowling as he looked at each of the ominous figures. "What's up, guys?"

"Go home," a man's voice said from another window.

Ivy swore it was Jovan, but she couldn't be sure.

Dred turned to face her. "Let's go."

"Alone," Mandrake told him. "This does not include you."

"What did you do?" Ivy stepped over a prone boy lying at her feet, heading for where she thought Mandrake to be. "Are they dead?"

"This?" Mandrake's voice was almost musical. "This is all temporary, Ivy."

"How?" She turned, taking in the bodies slumped on the floor in the starry-dots.

A loud balloon pop came from across the room. Lornie screamed, and then a string of popping balloons followed.

"Lornie!" Ivy scrambled over a girl lying before her. "Lornie! Don't hurt her, please!"

"Come to the Hall, Ivy." It was Scarlet's voice. "Please. Before it's too late."

Ivy stepped over the girl, only to trip over another fallen classmate. She landed with a thud, feeling the stays crush into her ribs. She grunted and tried to get up, but her foot was caught in her classmate's costume—Medusa's hair. She got up, her ankle ripping the snaky wig off Carlie lying there.

A loud, bouncy pop sounded and she saw Lornie fall to the floor atop a blue pirate.

When a flash of lightning lit up the room for several seconds, Ivy frantically looked to as many windows as she could. All were void of the dark figures.

"Where are you?" She turned again. "Mandrake? Lornie?" Her pulse spiked as she spun around, searching. "Scarlet? Lornie? Dred? Lornie?"

In the next flash of lightning, a deep red caught her eye. She looked down, feeling her bodice. The white material had dark smears where she knew there were no green flower patterns. Her hand was sticky, still warm from where she had fallen. Her fingers shook, reddened from a classmate's blood.

A loud sob broke from her. "Lornie!"

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